In celebration of the 15 year anniversary of arguably one of the greatest summer hits, Alcopop! is re-releasing Len’s ‘Steal My Sunshine.’ If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll know that summer is my absolute favorite season. You might even argue that I don’t belong in Denver, where summer is only three months long.

Regardless of that very accurate fact, I love flip flops, sunnies and jamming out with my windows down. Now that Alcopop! has released their hundredth tune , I’ll gladly cycle this back into my playlists. After all, it is an all-time summer classic.

Pour yourself a cocktail, fire up the BBQ and get ready for some solid throwback action.

As we continue down this path of slowly releasing each song from Noosa’s LP, Wonderland, we’re bringing you a song that we battled with. Not that we didn’t absolutely love the sound of ‘Stranger’, but we couldn’t put our finger on what it was about. Is she talking about her love life? Maybe it’s a relative who recently passed away? Well, we were wrong. Here’s what Sky had to say about the song’s meaning:

Nothing fell and there was definitely no earthquake. His roommate lou in the other room didn’t feel it, but we definitely did.
Then a bit later the big telephone pole outside the apartment fell down! We were definitely creating something powerful through our music in that moment. We felt some unseen help in the studio that day and it was beautiful!

That wraps up today’s premieres. Look for two new Noosa tracks tomorrow!

Midnight’s newest record “Adonis” is a completely gorgeous track with some very smooth chords and percussion produced by Nick Leng. With vocals as heartwarming and alluring as this, we assure you that you will fall in love with “Adonis”! Nick Leng may not be someone with the biggest following, but with in no time you will see him charting and taking over the game. This has a slight “moombahsoul” vibe on the percussion and lyrics that will put a huge smile on your face “Adonis” is a must have!

Goldlinkquickly became one of our favorite young emcees back in April with his debut project, The God Complex. Earlier today, the DMV-bred artist unleashed a stellar summer jam featuring production from fellow up ‘n comer, Kaytranada. “Sober Thoughts” carries Kaytra’s signature future-funk feel, a perfect backdrop for GL’s relaxed, rapid-fire delivery and soulful chorus.

The aesthetic on all of Goldlink’s music thus far has been impeccable, and his work with the talented producers of Soulection (Lakim, Sango and Kaytranada thus far) has been particularly impressive. We are excited to see how this exciting lyricist can impact the future of rap music but, for now, we’ll just keep his already dope catalog in heavy rotation.

P.S. Kaytranada dropped a zip file on his Facebook page early this morning that includes “Sober Thoughts” among about a dozen other tracks. Download that HERE.

The next track we have for you on the Wonderland LP is “Love”. The fact that this record is titled “Love” will give you a bit of insight on what Noosa puts in to their music. As always, Sky’s lyrics have a soul piercing manner to them and Mickey Valen’s composition backs the track up perfectly. Within seconds of turning on “Love” I was hooked, and we’re positive you will be as well! The percussion really keeps the energy rising throughout the record, and the luscious harmonies in the background fill in the spaces to create an all around exquisite track.

Stay checking back with The Music Ninja for the next track from the Wonderland LP!

It seems like with the overwhelming accessibility the internet brings to musicians across the globe, we’re seeing artists create music that they want to, rather than what the labels want them to. The ability to get these songs to the masses is easier than ever, making the backing of a label something that is helpful, but certainly not necessary.

Dia Frampton has tried going the label route, and she’s done with it. After years of Meg and Dia and some additional side projects that stemmed from her time of the Voice, she’s ready to make what she wants to make. Teaming up with composer/film scorer Joseph Trapanese (Tron, Oblivion), they’ve created a cinematic musical journey that is anything but pop music.

We had a chance to speak with Dia for a few minutes to ask her about this project. Check out what she had to say about Archis.

TMN: Hi Dia. Thank you for taking a minute to chat with us. Talk to us a little bit about your new project.

Dia: Archris is an entirely new project. This is the first track to intro the new EP. I’ve been writing with so many people in LA and working with so many different producers, and I got a little burnt out. I called up my friend Joe and I said “I really want to make a new EP. It’s been 3 years since my last release, and I really want to do something special. Are you interested?”

This is a project between Joseph Trapanese and myself. To tell you a little bit about him, he’s not a pop producer. He’s a composer.

TMN: He does film scoring, correct?

Dia: Yeah, he did TRON with Daft Punk and Oblivian with M83. I said I wanted to have that feel to a movie…I want it to have that climax. I want it to have those moments where the music says something for you as well. It didn’t have to be as busy as a pop song with so much production. Joe is so good at just putting in what needs to be there, not adding in stuff.

One thing I love about this EP is that so much of it is done live. It’s so amazing to have an EP that has so many souls in it. It was so cool to watch a nine piece string session go on! We got a live harp player in there. A lot of the album is live, and in this day in age, it’s hard to get live strings and brass on a record. We wanted it to be it’s own thing.

I had been so used to people saying, “we can’t do that because it won’t get on the radio.” Joe never says that. In fact, he usually takes it over the top.

It was great to make this with someone who is basically family to me. He’s such a close, close friend.

TMN: Talk to us about ‘Blood’ in particular.

Dia: This song is very personal. I wrote it on my own, in my room at a not so good time in my life. It’s really special. It’s like producing a diary entry. This whole EP is an adventure, but it’s also going through some changes. I always had a problem with the pop world because I would be writing, or going in to talk to a producer and I would always hear, “the girls want to hear about strength and girl power.”

I always wanted to sing about sad stuff, or painful things, or being afraid. They never wanted me to write about that. I believe in strength, but I believe in vulnerability. I’m a very vulnerable person. There’s things that have happened in my life that have just caused change and I’m never the person who has been super optimistic about it.

It’s about overcoming something but not coming out on the other end looking like Beyonce. It’s about coming out and having those dark sides with you that you endured along the way.

We’ve had our eye on French-born We Were Evergreen for the past couple years. Their wildly catchy brand of indie rock has made its way into countless playlists of ours, consistently providing toothy smiles time and time again.

From the perfect playful pop structures to the vocal harmonies used as percussion, we were overwhelmingly excited to have a quick chat with these cats. Alongside of this short interview, we also have a curated “Summertime Playlist,” which highlights some of their favorite warm weather tunes.